Making the most of everyday items can save money and is bang on trend when it comes to gardening. Upcycling is more than just reusing items in a different way; it allows gardeners to explore an artistic side by rethinking just what to do with those items that might otherwise be discarded.
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Not every gardener is an artist, but every gardener can create artistic garden pieces from some of the most basic items. Items take on even more charm when plants are installed in them, for instance old work boots or children's rain boots, old tins, teapots, glassware, and more provide interesting planting options.
Even an old colander can have new life breathed into it when planted up as a hanging basket. Old cutlery including forks and spoons can be fashioned into wind chimes or used as crop markers in the veggie patch. With a little imagination virtually anything can be repurposed or upcycled in the garden to create some stunning effects.
Wooden palettes are an ideal item for upcycling as they can be utilised for construction of vertical gardens, ideal for those gardeners with limited space. For the handyperson palettes can be built into a potting bench or even compost bins, garden furniture or simply filled with potting mix between the slats and planted up to grow veggies, flowering annuals or succulents. Strawberries are a perfect selection for growing in a palette garden and you'll be surprised just how much produce can be harvested from a square meter of a palette garden.
Creative containers can be fashioned from items such as cracked cups, mugs, teapots and tins make ideal containers to grow a variety of succulents. It's critical to ensure that whatever item used has enough drainage holes drilled into the base to remove excess water from the growing media.
Old musical instruments can also be used as a planting container, just let your imagination run wild. An old fish tank can be repurposed into a terrarium and a broken terracotta can even be used as a focal point in the garden. Simply place the broken pot on its side preferably on a sloping site and plant blue foliaged echeveria or blue flowering lobelia spilling down the slope in a curved fashion to create the effect of water spilling from the container.
Once you begin to repurpose and upcycle the ideas will soon generate on other great ways to utilise discarded items in the garden.
